Team RGLA
by Nightshot13
Summary: Rusty joins Beacon Academy, a prestigious school for hunters and huntresses. He makes friends or enemies of the main cast, gets his own team, gets wrapped up in his own plot, helps RWBY fight the white fang and, this being a RWBY fic, romances someone.
1. Chapter 1

Team RGLA

This is the first chapter, so obviously there is going to be a lot of talking, showing what kind of character Rusty is, making friends with the main cast etc. etc. The rest of team RGLA won't actually be showing up until the initiation, but the first part of that will be in the next chapter anyway. Probably going to try to do these once a week, maybe one every two weeks.

Rusty stood aboard the Bullhead, staring out of the window, looking down upon Vale, and towards Beacon. A wide grin spread across his face at the thought of being above the world. Miles of landscape stretching about below his feet.

Sounds of wonderment surrounded him, the other students who had been accepted to Beacon Academy creating a cacophony of 'Ooh's and 'Aah's. Other's had already begun to make friends, and he decided to do the same. His feet carried him across to the other side of the Bullhead, making Signal academy, his place of learning, visible.

"Yang, you have puke on your shoe!" He heard a high voice coming from his left. "Ahhh, gross gross gross gross gross!" Clearly someone on the ship didn't like heights. He took a step back, letting the blonde haired boy run past him to the toilets. Well, at least he knew who to avoid the next time he flew. A small exasperated sigh escaped his lips as he walked towards the pair of screaming girls, a warm smile on his face.

He pulled a handkerchief out of his pauldron as he passed it to who he assumed to be Yang, who did indeed have puke on her shoe. "Here, use this to clean up. Yang, I'm going to assume?" The blonde knelt down, wiping the sick from her boots. "Yup, that's me. This is my 'lil sis, Ruby!"

"Little sister? I thought all first-years were 17?" His smile turned to a confused frown as he looked to the short, black haired girl. He couldn't initially see the weapon, but then he saw the two ends of a folded Sniper-Scythe. Such a large weapon for such a small girl, he mused in his head. "Yeah, she got moved forward two years! I'm so prouuud of her!" She squealed, pulling Ruby to her in a hug with one arm, squashing the poor girl between Yang and her arm.

Rusty gave her a warm smile as Ruby was released from her elder sister's side. She kicked the ground, hugging herself slightly as she said in a quiet voice, "Y-yeah, but don't think I'm too special or anything. I'm just a normal girl, with normal knees." Another puzzled look flashed across his face before he dismissed it, giving a slight chuckle. "Don't worry Ruby, I'll treat you just the same." Rusty leant on the window slightly, looking down towards signal, before pushing off of it and turning to the pair again. "I know how you feel. I was pulled into one of those 'advanced classes.' The ones that basically give you a free pass into Beacon." He cocked his head, flashing another reassuring smile. "Looks like we both have to keep our prodigy-ness a secret then, eh?"

"Oh, that was you? That's awesome! Yang told me about you." Ruby looked up at Rusty in wonderment. It wasn't often she got to see someone who was almost second-year in power. "Yeah, I told her about the advanced classes. She wanted in, but professor Qrow, our uncle, wouldn't let her. Too dangerous, he said." Yang gave a smile and a purr to Rusty. "So then, is it dangerous?" "Well yeah, we train with live fire and out actual weapons agains-" Yang sidled up in front of him, face almost uncomfortably close to his. "So it is dangerous? Ooh, I like the dangerous ones."

Ruby looked around to make sure nobody was looking. She didn't want her sister to be making a scene like that, especially before they even arrived at Beacon. She squeezed herself between the pair and pushed Yang away, before grabbing her arm and pulling her off. "Sorry!" was all Rusty heard from Ruby, as she pulled her elder, and apparently flirty sister away. Yang's only response to this, before she disappeared from sight was a wink.

The Bullhead docked against the side of the cliff that held Beacon Academy. The grounds were huge, stretching far behind where he could see, and the building matched them in size. This time he joined in with the wondrous noises, a quiet "Whoa" escaping his lips. Other students began to make their way towards the building, but Rusty felt like making more friends or at least acquaintances before heading off.

His eyes searched around before he laid eyes on what appeared to be a Schnee, white dress with white hair and white heels. He made his way towards her, and who appeared to be her servants, hoping to get into the good graces of Miss Weiss Schnee. "Hello, Miss Schnee. Good to see one of you trying to become a huntress." His pose was almost military, hands clasped behind his back and feet apart. The prissy little princess looked up from her luggage, laying eyes on Rusty. "Hah, good to see at least one of you knows who I am. Yes, I'm Weiss Schnee, of the Schnee dust company. And you...," She eyed him up, looking over him for any signs of delinquency or imperfection, "seem to be very well mannered." She said it almost a tone that almost betrayed respect. He put out his hand to her, offering it. "Well, you're a Schnee. Have to give you some level of respect and gratefulness. If it weren't for your family, I likely wouldn't be here. Thought the whole Faunus labour thing is rather...unsavoury. Still, you seem pretty good. I doubt you would be attending if you were going to be openly racist to the Faunus." He gave her a friendly, reassuring smile as he had to Ruby earlier. Weiss placed her hand on his, giving it a firm shake, before returning it her side.

"Yes, it is unpleasant, but my father, the man who does this, won't be the last Schnee to be remembered. That would be me. I'll put us back onto a more...humane path. Though the White Fang is another matter." She released his hand, and looked down, showing only the slightest shame at her name. "Yeah, I have to agree with you on that. Still maybe they can be convinced...Anyway, lets talk about the whole family thing another time, Weiss. I can't imagine thats what you want to be reminded of every second you're here. I'll just call you Weiss and treat you like every other aspiring huntress here. Though maybe a little better, on account of your amazing appearance." He gave her a wink that turned her usually pale face bright red for a moment, before she regained her composure.

She pondered it for a moment, before putting her head back up and giving a single nod. "Yeah, ok," was her only reply. Another smile was on Rusty's face at her agreement. "Nice to see you agree! But that does mean I'll be talking to you more plainly. Anyway, we better get going. Might be late for whatever Ozpin is doing to welcome us here. Bye!" And with that, he ran off. Talking to Weiss had kept him back long enough, though being in her good books was sure to come in handy in the future. Ozpin was even later than him, it seemed, as his feet took him into the main hall with an empty stage.

Wanting to kill time before Ozpin's whatever, he searched the hall for someone else to talk to. His eyes were caught by the red and gold of Pyrrha Nikos, as she strolled into the hall. Another star to get in good graces with. A star athlete was sure to be famous, and seeing him talking to her was sure to make others respect him a little more. "Pyrrha Nikos? I did not expect to see you in Beacon." Pyrrha snapped her body around, coming face to face with Rusty. "Oh sorry, I didn't see you there! Yes, that's me. Pyrrha Nikos." Her voice lowered a bit on her last sentence, showing what almost appeared to be shame at it. "Well, it's nice to meet you, Pyrrha. Hopefully we'll get to spar at some point. Being a top student must have made you tough. And it's certainly kept your body in good shape." He tried to make her feel at least a little bit better by complementing her. That normally worked. "O-oh, thank you! You look rather nice yourself. I should probably get going though, Ozpin might start his speech soon." Deciding to go with her decision, he offered a "goodbye" before walking off, getting into a good spot for Ozpin's speech.

End of Chapter 1


	2. Chapter 2

Team RGLA

Ozpin's speech had finished, and all of the new students had begun to make their way into the building, towards the hall where they would be spending the night. The feet of the ridiculous amount of people created a cacophony of noise, drowning out any attempts at conversation one might make. Rusty had seen a good number of Faunus here, which was good. Nice to see that even with the way some humans might treat them, they still want to protect Vale.

The lengthy blade on Rusty's arm had practically forced others to give him some room on the walk, and for that he was thankful. A rather mundane, but practical use for his typically deadly weapon. He, and many others no doubt, marvelled at the size of the school, even if they had clearly seen it from outside. The halls seemed to stretch on forever, and it had already felt like they had walked a mile. Some of the less durable ones had already begun to run out of breath, which didn't bode well for whatever they would do to test the abilities of the students.

Finally, they reached the hall, where they would spend the night before being divided up into their dorms, or teams for that matter. A rumour had passed around quickly that people would be divided up into teams of 4. _I wonder who I would be partnered with then, in that case. And how would it be decided? _was Rusty's only real thought about the situation. It didn't bother him, though he hoped to be grouped with Yang and Ruby. People began throwing down their bedrolls, choosing places next to people they knew, or on their own in the corner of the room. Rusty threw his down roughly in the centre of the room, against one of the walls. Not even a huge distance from Ruby and Yang, who were just on the other side of the makeshift path that had been created.

By the time it had reached night, people had already begun preparing for bed, or even fallen asleep that quickly. Rusty looked towards his left, noting the lack of people between him and a girl with black hair, reading a book. He shuffled down towards her. Rusty had a fair interest in reading, he used it as escapism in the advanced classes in Signal. "What book are you reading? What's it about?" He asked, rather quietly. The girl clearly had pretty good senses, because she wasn't startled in the slightest. Her face looked up from being buried in the pages. "It's a story about a man with two souls, fighting for control of his body. You should read it, if you like books." Her voice was soft, but she was still pretty clearly concise in the way she spoke, preferring to keep her sentences short.

"Perhaps I will. Sounds pretty good, at least. What's you name then? Cute girl like you must have a pretty nice one." He let off a small smile at her, hoping to get into her good books too. _Lots of nice girls here. Sweet._ Rusty thought. It was certainly pleasing to have so many to choose from.

"It's Blake, and...thank you. That's kind." There was barely a blush on her face, this girl was certainly good at hiding her emotions. "So, you're a reader, then?" Blake quickly reasserted herself. "Yeah, I am. Used to do it a lot to ignore the kids in my classes. I can see you are, too." Rusty was definitely an open book to someone he shared interests with, especially if they were a nice-looking girl.

"So, what's your weapon like? Bet you must be packing something powerful, arms like those." He gestured to her well built arms, wiry but still clearly powerful. "Well, they're in our lockers aren't they? I'll see if I can show you tomorrow. Anyway, I'd like to get back to my book. May I?" She asked, gesturing to it, still open in her hand. "Yeah, sure. Have fun! Maybe I'll see you around." He answered, hopping back to his bedroll and turning from Blake's light.

By the morning, and by the time Rusty had awoken, most of the people had finished washing and getting dressed. By the time Rusty had finished, everyone was preparing for this initiation thing he had heard about. He ran to the locker room, heading to his locker to grab his weapons. He punched the code in, before getting his equipment. He pulled the glove over his hand, the custom-tailored material fitting his hand perfectly. Rusty slung the the quiver and dust rods over his back, and locked the pistol around his wrist, blade inside the barrel. He did one last check-over of it all, before running off, to see the first group already being launched into the air towards a forest. _Well, that's one form of initiation. _ran through his mind, before a way to land began to run through it not long after.

He stopped just short of the plates and turned to Professor Ozpin, and his blonde-haired assistant. "I'm sorry I'm late professor! Really sorry!" He bowed twice quickly in apology. "It's fine, Rusty. Just make sure it doesn't happen again, wouldn't want to be late saving your team, would you? Now go, get on a plate and everything will be explained."

He placed his feet on the metal plate. He had practically chosen this one, next to Blake. A blonde haired girl, eyes deep blue took up position next to him. He had barely noticed the end of her hair, dip-dyed a bright, electric blue. She would be easy to find in the forest, she certainly looked tough at least, as she pulled her weapon from her waist. Rusty didn't have time to see what it was, before Ozpin spoke up.

"Now, any questions?" Ozpin asked after finishing with his explanation of what was to happen. Nobody replied, and he gave the signal to whoever would send the group flying into the forest. Rusty saw the students on his left getting flung into the air, preparing to land in each of their respective ways.

As his plate sprung, Rusty ran through the plan in his head once again. He pulled out his blade in mid-air as he went flying towards the branches of the trees that were quickly coming towards him. The red dust rod went from the quiver into the pommel of the sword just in time for him to send a wave of fire towards the first branch, obliterating it just before his feet hit it. Rusty did the same for the next branches that came toward him. As he was going through the last few branches, he heard a high pitched yelp from his right. Probably the blue girl. He would go to get her after he had landed.

As the wave of fire incinerated the last branch, Rusty seemed to disappear from the sky. He had, in fact, activated his semblance. His barely visible form crashed into the ground, perfectly on his feet as a small crater formed under his boots. He became visible again, looking to his right to where he had heard the scream. Rusty ran towards the source of what seemed to be a struggling sound, leaves falling from a shaking tree. "Hey, is there someone in there?" He shouted up. He had to try and get whoever it was out as quickly as possible, the shaking and shouting would be likely to attract Grimm, and that would certainly be bad.

"Yeah! I need to get out, I got stuck in this tree!" It was certainly a feminine voice coming from the tree, so it was indeed likely that it was the blue girl that had been next to Rusty on the launch. Rusty shouted back up the tree, "Ok, I'm coming to get you! Just, y'know, wait up there. Not as if you're going anywhere." He mumbled the last part to himself. He dug his blade into the trunk of the tree, standing on the hilt before creating a small gouge in it with an explosion from his glove. He dug his hand into the hole, before using his feet to dislodge his sword and create a platform above him again.

Rusty repeated this until he reached the top where the blue girl was. She was tangled up in the branches, her hair a mass as she lay there, no real way to get down without harming herself. He tossed a reassuring smile to her, before placing his feet on the branch and walking towards her.

As he got within distance, the girl wrapped her arm around his neck and shoulder, using him as leverage to stand slightly. He put his left arm under her legs, lifting her onto him as he prepared to jump from the tree. Before the girl even had a chance to protest, he leapt from it, her screaming the whole way down. Just before he hit the ground, he activated his semblance again, the pair landing on the ground with a resounding thud, completely unharmed, except for Rusty's drained aura.

Rusty let her down, but as soon as her feet touched the ground, he had a stinging slap mark on his cheek. "How dare you?! What if you're semblance hadn't activated? And why didn't you tell me? We could have died you fool!" The girl slapped him again for good measure, and to drill her point in deeper. Though her palm dug deeper than her opinion.

As her hand swung towards Rusty's face again, he disappeared, her hand phasing through him, leading to her falling onto the ground. Rusty turned around towards her, kneeling slightly. "Please stop. Using my semblance drains my aura as it is, I don't need you draining it too."

The next thing Rusty heard was not her hand whistling through the air, but rustling in the bushes nearby, followed by a low growl. He pushed the girl away, and dodged himself, as a large beowolf leapt out of the bush, claws gouging into the ground where they were just seconds ago. Before they could even react, they were surrounded by even more Grimm. They couldn't run from this fight, and Rusty enjoyed a good scrap anyway.

He pulled his sword from it's sheath, placing it straight forward from him, legs apart. Next he took an ice dust rod from his quiver, before placing it in the pommel of his sword. The girl pulled her sword from her waist, showing it much more clearly. It seemed rather simple, the only complicated part being what seemed to be a dust container at the base of the blade. He could see about 7 beowolves around the pair. _Well, this should be easy. _Rusty thought to himself, as the first leapt at him.

He swung his arm up, materialising a wall of ice out of the ground, which the Grimm crashed into. He followed it up by clicking his fingers, creating a large explosion inside the ice, sending the Beowolf flying backwards, smouldering, and shattering the wall, firing shards of ice all around. Blocks flew into two of the beowolves, but melted before they did any serious damage. The pair leapt at Rusty, but before they could reach him, he disappeared, reappearing behind them.

Rusty swung his sword twice, dividing the first Beowolf in three, blood gushing from its wounds and over the ground, before dashing to the second one and pulling his pistol from his wrist, firing it at point blank range, turning the Beowolf's head to bloody chunks on the ground.

While that was happening, the girl was fighting the other four. As the first two ran towards her, she flicked the switch below the box on her weapon and switched her grip, firing it full auto into the two Beowolves in front of her, tearing them down, blood spurting from their wounds onto the earth as they collapsed. As the other two looked to eachother, she dashed towards them, sliding under the first and gutting it from throat to groin, soaking the ground and her in blood, before switching to the gun mode again and putting two shots in the last Beowolf's chest and head, blowing off its snout and leaving a large hole in its chest.

Rusty and the girl sheathed their weapons, both splattered in blood that had already begun to drip off them. Rusty out his hand out towards the girl, offering in both partnership as students and friendship as, well, friends. She grabbed his hand, giving it a firm shake before speaking. "I'm Azure. That was a good fight, even after you being a fool back there at the tree. What's your name?" She asked, finally revealing her name to Rusty. "I'm Rusty. Good to meet you too. We make a pretty good team, huh? And since we've already made eye contact, I'd say we're partners now!" A wide grin spread across his face at the thought. She was pretty damn beautiful, and her fighting skills seemed as sharp as her tongue.

Azure agreed wordlessly. "Where do you think the relic is? And what is it?" She asked, looking around with an almost ditzy look on her face. When she looked back at Rusty, she tilted her head to the side and pointed behind her. "How about there? There's some embers. Maybe some other people went that way?" Rusty looked over her shoulder. There were definitely embers, probably from someone using dust.

The pair made their way towards the fire, now died down, leaving just blacked ground and leaves behind. Rusty was the first to notice the tracks along the ground, heading up towards a hill. Likely from whoever had started the fire. At least it should lead them to either someone, the relic, or both. As Rusty called to Azure, bushes started rustling behind her as her eyes were focused on the ground. Even with his speed, Rusty wouldn't be able to make it in time to protect her from whatever emerged from the foliage.

End of chapter 2, guys! Ooooh, cliffhanger, huh? Have to find out in the next chapter what came from the bush.


	3. Chapter 3

Team RGLA

Oooooh, Cliff hanger from last time, eh? Yeah. Now you get to see what it is! And hopefully an even better fight than the beowolf fight.

Whatever was rustling in the bushes leapt out towards Azure. All that could be heard was her scream as Rusty closed his eyes, not wanting to see the girl get torn apart by whatever grimm leapt from the greenery. As it stopped, he opened his eyes, expecting some monstrous grimm to come at him. Instead, he was met with the bright eyes of a girl with striking red hair. He had almost thought it was Pyrrha at first, but as he stumbled back and tripped, he saw that it most certainly was not Pyrrha, but someone else. A huge lance was slung across her back, the handle extending way past her head, and the tip just inches off the ground. "Um..h-hey. Who're you?" Rusty asked, hoping to get a name, and perhaps even directions from the girl.

"I'm Garnet!" The girl exclaimed excitedly, bouncing up and down on the spot. "My friend over there is Lapis." She knelt down towards him, placing her head next to his, before whispering, "she's a little mean." Rusty looked past her hair to see a short, almost child-like girl with white-blue hair kneeling over Azure. She certainly looked mean, at least. "Hey, Lapis, right? Do you two know where the relic is?"

The girl looked up from Azure, still lying on the ground breathing heavily. Lapis hopped over her, making her way to Rusty as he stood up. Her eyes drilled into his. If it weren't for the fact that they had never met before, at least as far as he could remember, he would suspect that she loathed him with a passion, though the way she looked at Azure said she thought that way about everyone. "That way, you moron. At least we know where we're going." Lapis spoke in a monotone voice, almost robotic, as she pointed towards her right, over a hill.

Rusty ran to Azure, wrapping his hand around her wrist and pulling her up, before cresting the hill that Lapis had pointed to. As his view went over, he saw a small ruin, pedestals around it holding chest pieces of Gold and Black. Azure came up behind him, letting out a small exclamation as she saw the ruin for herself. Lapis hopped down to the ground below, landing carefully on her feet. Garnet followed after her, though much more excitedly and with much less grace. Azure and Rusty shared a look before leaping down themselves. The 4 all made their way to the pedestals holding what appeared to be the relics.

"What one should we take? Is there a right answer?" Azure asked, scanning over all the pieces. Well, the 2 pieces. The only ones left were white kings. "We're the last ones? Awwww." Garnet whispered the last part, as everyone look around properly for the first time, noticing at once the veritable circle of grimm around them. Apparently this was a hot-spot for Grimm.

Rusty and Garnet both grabbed pieces for their pairs. "We should probably leave. Grimm will likely be here soon." Lapis looked around at the trees circling the area. Some of the trees were knocked down, and there were a bunch of nevermore feathers and signs of a large battle around them. Some of the grimm corpses even seemed chewed on, and for some reason had not dissipated into the air. Why were they there?

A loud, blood curdling, scream-like roar shook the area, sending branches and leaves from the trees around the 4 to the ground, along with the group themselves. The ground shook under them like an earthquake, heralding the sign of something. That something being very large, and potentially very dangerous.

Rusty, Garnet, Azure and Lapis all stood from the floor as trees began to fall in front of them. The counter rod in Rusty's quiver began to glow and vibrate. They were in danger.

A black flash came from the trees, sending the group flying from each other and into the ground. The relic pantheon disappeared under it, bricks scattering along the ground as another roar loosed from its mouth, sending the 4 rolling along the ground a short distance. Garnet and Azure were the first to stand, their aura barely depleted, though Rusty and Lapis took longer to stand.

Terror filled all of their eyes as they looked towards the grimm before them. Rows of bloody teeth filled its maw, the bony white highlighting the blood of the grimm in its mouth. 6 eyes blinked separately along its mask, all glowing a deep, malevolent red, their large shape staring back at them all. 6 legs touched the ground, digging in, the talons of the beast gouging dirt from the ground. Its body was covered in bone plating, the visible skin a pitch black colour. 6 tails stretched from its back, slamming the ground. And finally, one pair of pitch black wings with a blood red membrane giving them their use. If they weren't scared for their lives, they might be in awe of it.

As they all finished assessing the creature, one of its tails sped around from its back, stretching towards them and seemingly extending like elastic, going straight for Garnet. Her hand went over her shoulder, pulling her lance from its holster and pinning the tail to the ground. She hit a switch in the hood of the lance, making barrels spring around it. Shots fired from them, hitting the ground in single, explosive bullets. The ring of barrels rotated, shredding the tail and blowing it up at the same time. Before long, it was obliterated.

She didn't count on a second tail coming for her though, which sent her skidding along the ground, depleting her aura a good amount. As it came for her again, Rusty inserted the counter rod into the pommel of his sword, dashing towards her and raising his blade to the pointed tail. It it hit the edge of the weapon, an entire section of the tail disappeared into the air in a purple flash, leaving two of its long appendages writhing.

The beast didn't bother using its tails anymore, instead opting to let out a wave of roaring fire towards Rusty and Garnet. Azure saw the grimm rear its head, ready to bathe them in fire, and unholstered her weapon, flipping the switches on it. 3 shots screamed from the barrel of her weapon, sending Rusty and Garnet flying out of the way of the roaring flames that blackened the ground where they were a second ago. Lapis unholstered her weapons, firing shots towards the creature's armoured hide, drawing its attention to her and Azure for the moment.

Rusty stood, Garnet propped on his shoulder as Lapis and Azure fired on the creature. Azure's shots bounced mostly off the creature's armour plating, but Lapis fired around them instead, sending exploding dust into the gaps between the bone. Her eyes almost seemed to glow a little. Perhaps this was her semblance? Either way, now was not the time to wonder.

As Garnet pushed herself off Rusty's shoulder, she placed her other hand on him, and gave him more strength, filling his aura beyond what he normally was able. Reddened aura flowed from him in a bathing glow, painting the immediate area around him a bright red as his and Garnet's auras mixed. Even the purple dust rod inside his blade began to glow brighter, filled to saturation with the overpowering strength of Garnet's immense aural presence.

The moment Rusty drew his sword again, a large plate of bone fell from the creature's stomach, exposing it to attack. As soon as that fell, Lapis shifted her aim to the edges of the next segment, seemingly intent on making that fall as well. The dragon grimm realised what she was attempting to do, and sent the remainder of its tails at her, intent on keeping itself protected as possible. That was the first mistake.

The tails disappeared in their entirety, vanishing in a purple haze as Rusty's sword cut through them, the absolute power of the dust in his weapon and the combined power of two auras filling his body, making him able to move much faster. He knew, that if he and Garnet were to end up on the same time, this would be their absolute, end all trump card.

Blood sprayed from the grimm's bloody stumps of tails, gore dripping from the place where it once had limbs, staining the ground with its blood. The second they disappeared, Rusty went with them. The red streak of a hunter-in-training criss-crossed between the trees as he bounced between them, slashing the enemy each time. Blood flew from the ripped, sinewy skin of the beast, thick from the rippled muscle and once-taut black hide, the blade of Rusty's sword tearing through even the thick, bone plating of the demon.

Another plate fell from the chest of the grimm, the largest on its body. It landed with a heavy thud on the ground, kicking up dirt around it. The dragon reared from the plating, wanting to get away from it, but Garnet and Azure took the opportunity, sending a barrage of rounds into their enemy's chest, spouting blood from the gaping crater they left. It's muscly forearms hit the ground again, kicking up more dirt, before the monster took a flying leap towards the pair, ignoring the exploding rounds embedded in its side as it flew towards the pair, arms outstretched to claw them to ribbons. That was its second mistake.

Even though Rusty couldn't make it from the other end of the makeshift arena in time to defend them, it mattered little. Azure switched her blade to its sword form and pushed Garnet out of the way. Her sword was embedded in the ground for a moment, before both her eyes and her assailant's lit up like the night sky. Half of its hand disappeared, falling to the ground as the rest flailed past, hitting the ground and skidding towards the cliffside as its legs searched for purchase against the ground.

One of its back legs caught against the very edge of the cliff, stopping it from careening over into the abyss below, although the abyss seemed to be its origin. Azure's eyes let up their glow, her sword now in the air as she turned to the ghastly, dragon-like foe ahead of her. Her weapon switched again to its railgun mode, sending two more shots towards their enemy. They mattered little.

A hellish scream erupted from the grimm's mouth, and it's skin flared up with black fire, black flames shooting from it's mouth in a long, wide cone. The others were able to get out of the way, but the shadowy fire came towards Rusty. He pulled the purple rod of dust from his sword and replaced it with one that was icy-blue. He planted his sword in the ground as walls of ice shot up ahead of him, blocking the roaring fire and uppercutting the grimm, stunning it. Rusty switched rods again, changing instead to a bright orange rod. Then he brought the sword above his head and took a step forward before slamming it to the ground, shooting a wave of his own fire from the now burning sword, sending the demon back.

Finally, he switched one more time, to a darker blue rod. Lightning swirled around his sword, crackling with the still overflowing energy from Garnet. He flitted down the gap created in the ice by the fire, feet not even touching the ground, sword trailing below and behind him. As he neared the grimm, he flipped, feet and blade up towards the grimm. As he spun, his feet found themselves against the enemy's chest, as did his sword. The bright blade of thunder bit into the grimm's chest, and towards his stomach as Rusty's speed carried the blade through the enemy.

Black blood, once red, sprayed the ground in a uniform line as the dragon toppled, Rusty still clinging to the sword hanging from it's chest. He removed the weapon from the beast, which was a difficulty within itself, as the blood and skin attempted to suck it in. Eventually it found its way out, with a large squirt of blood. The blade was coated in the creature's black blood.

Rusty removed the lightning rod and placed the fire into it again, wanting to use its range attack to hit any grimm that they might see on the way back. But instead of red and orange fire spouting from the crossguard to the tip, it was black, exactly like that of the grimm he had just felled. Rusty could feel the heat from it, much more intense that before, and the end that stuck from the bottom of the handle immediately turned black along with it. He was surprised by the strange flames that coated his weapon, but quickly reasserted himself, removing the warm, black rod from the base of his weapon and placing in the quiver where the old flame rod once was.

Azure, Garnet and Lapis all crowded around Rusty. Lapis was no worse for wear, but Garnet hung off Azure, clearly drained by giving her aura to Rusty. He immediately moved to weary girl, propping her up on his shoulder along with Azure as the both of them beamed at Rusty, either impressed or ecstatic from his defeat of the large, powerful grimm. In sharp contrast to Lapis apparent lack of the ability to smile, although the corner of her lips curled very slightly at him when she ran over to him. "What now," Azure asked, puzzled as to what to do next, "head back to Beacon? How?"

The return to the academy was uneventful, save for a pack of beowolves that Azure and Lapis very quickly dispatched from range. When they returned, they were greeted by what seemed to be the entirety of the first year. Seems that they were the last back. Glynda explained that when half of the first years returned, they had turned on the large screen in the main hall and displayed the remaining students, save for the few that had died. As more and more students returned, of course more eyes came to Rusty's group, and they had all seen the fight with the dragon grimm. The resounding cheer made it clear they were impressed.

"Ruby Rose, Weiss Schnee, Blake Belladonna, and Yang Xiaolong. You are now known as Team RWBY. Led by...Ruby Rose." The crowd outside the preparation room cheered to Team RWBY, clearly impressed by their fight with the Nevermore that people had not stopped chatting about, alongside the Amaterasu dragon, which was the name of the grimm that Rusty's team had defeated. Glynda called to the group to move out onto the stage and receive their team name and reveal their leader.

The four walked out onto the stage in unison, all in a perfect line. Rusty on the right, towards the crowd, then Garnet, Lapis and finally Azure. They stopped at the designated spots ahead of Ozpin as he spoke. "Rusty King, Garnet Fir, Lapis, Azure Meridan. You are now known as Team RGLA. Led by...Rusty King." Ozpin smiled a warm smile to the group, no doubt as he did to the other teams, but it still reassured the lot of them. The crowd erupted into cheers, the final team named. Rusty looked to his left as the rest of the team looked back at their leader. Even Lapis had a small, wry smile.

The team looked back to Ozpin, nodded and took their leave from the stage, going down to greet Team RWBY. Another team that had caught peoples eyes were Team JNPR, who had defeated the Deathstalker while RWBY took on the Nevermore. All three of the big fights were screened before the ceremony for all who had missed them to see, and Teams RWBY and JNPR certainly did well.

All teams returned to their dorms, far too tired from the days trials to bother personalising the spaces just yet, thought it mattered little. The beds were still comfortable.

Gosh damn, that took a damn long time to write. Finally finished though. I don't think I've written this much in all of my english exams and coursework. It was damn worth it though.


	4. Chapter 4

Team RGLA

Next chapter! Not really gonna say much about this one, just some socialisation, comedy (hopefully) a couple fights and some explanations. Enjoy.

Rusty rose from his bed, pushing the covers and stray pillow from his face. He was a heavy sleeper, but not one that stayed still by any means. The others were still asleep and he wondered at the time. 6am? It was a surprise that none of the others were awake. Especially Lapis, she seemed the early riser type. May as well get dressed while the others were asleep. Being the only guy in a team of girls would make such things difficult, he should take the easy way out when he can.

After he finished changing his underwear and vest, he grabbed his trousers. Leather reinforced the insides of them, and his metal armour protected the outsides, similarly with his top and jacket. He hooped his belt through them when they were in place, them put on his shirt and jacket. Next was his armour, but he would leave that for when the others woke. It certainly wasn't quiet when it was put on, he had learnt that on the first day when they didn't have dorms. He could at least polish his weapons, and take a look at that black rod of dust, although it felt closer to hardened blood now.

Rusty grabbed his sword and it's gun-sheath from under his bed. It was a challenge to build, and he wouldn't want to have to fix it. Next came the cloth from his drawers next to the bed, and the oil and polishing dust. He dipped the cloth in the jar of dust, and drew his sword from the sheath, placing it on the bed. First he would clean and maintain the gun. He did a once-over on the insides and outside, before silently switching it to pistol form and doing the same.

Rusty placed the gun on the bed before getting his sword, doing the same with that. He polished the blade, and checked the inside of the dust-infusion mechanism, making sure to check that the black dust hadn't damaged it, although thankfully it hadn't. He had just placed it inside its sheath when Azure's head peaked up from her piles of covers and pillows. RGLA had been given a bunk room so that two of the girls could get as much privacy as possible. Still, Azure's fort of pillows would give her all the privacy she needed.

The pile erupted like a volcano, sending pillows rolling off the bed, and Azure appeared from it, yawning loudly. She crawled over the makeshift walls and fell of the side, landing on a pile of pillows. At least she wouldn't wake Garnet and Lapis. She barely acknowledged Rusty before she already started to get changed, slipping off her pink nightgown. Rusty's face turned a bright red before he quickly turned on his bed, and letting out a small yelp.

Azure finally realised that Rusty was there when he made a noise somewhere between a scream and a shout. "Do you not wear anything under that? It might help." He said sheepishly, although he has no complaints of what he saw. He wouldn't forget it soon. Azure smiled as she walked over to Rusty, dropping her gown where she was standing.

She leant against him, her rather large chest pressing on his back, and giggled slightly. "What's the matter? Does it make you feel...awkward?" She leant on him even more making him lean forward slightly himself as she put her hands on his chest. "I'd just rather not get a reputation as a pervert who watches the other girls in his team get changed." Rusty replied, voice low in embarrassment. Azure giggled again and moved her hands up onto his shoulders and began massaging them. "You think that, but I'd have no issues if you watched me get changed, even if I am naked."

Azure moved her hands again, this time hugging Rusty lightly. "I can see that." He said. "I don't think you do though, and that's the problem." Azure leant up from him a little bit, her back aching. Rusty chuckled a little, and moved his head to look up at Azure's face, smiling back at her. She planted a kiss on his lips before getting back to the very important job of getting dressed.

Rusty and Azure spoke as she got dressed, him now not being ashamed at looking at her while she was dressed. He didn't act on her, but his mind certainly wandered to many places. Azure had been sitting on her bed for a while, chatting Rusty up and him doing the same to her before Lapis and Garnet woke. Those two seemed perfectly in sync, even more so than Rusty and Azure.

They both got dressed while up in their bunks before hopping down, Garnet flashing a smile at everyone while Lapis wore her seemingly signature frown. "So, what's first on our list?" Garnet asked, almost bouncing in excitement. "Well, the first thing we should do is make this place our own, don't you think?" Azure replied to Garnet. Rusty and Lapis nodded in agreement, and they set to work.

Azure set about in her little section of the room, hanging a poster of a girl with long, pink pigtails and a girl that looked almost like Yang, just as a lion faunus. Apparently her interests were not in just men. Garnet placed a little shelf that she seemingly pulled out of nowhere, and on it a bunch of figures. Another girl with pink hair, except this girl's hair was shorter, and she was carrying a knife, and a load of others. Lapis did little except make a makeshift container for her guns in the bedframe. Rusty did just as little, placing a poster of his own. His was of two girls also, one with short green hair, and the other with waist hair pink hair. They were both singers. Azure had also somehow managed to bring a holo-tv, with a player. And she had brought DVDs, as had Garnet. Likely of where their posters came from. At least they wouldn't be bored in their spare time.

"Hey girls, when's our first lesson?" Rusty turned from having set up the player for later to ask his question. Lapis grabbed her book from her set of drawers and checked the times. "Well, first lesson is at 9am. And it's 8:40 now, so I'd suggest we get going." Rusty nodded his head to agree with Lapis, and the four made their way to the first lesson. They heard some odd noises from RWBY's room as they passed it, but Rusty didn't want to barge in. Wouldn't do if they were getting dressed.

Their first lesson was Grimm biology, and Glynda was their teacher. Rusty couldn't quite make up his mind on her. Sometimes she was fine, sometimes she was a bitch. Either way, she was good at her job as a teacher. "As some of you likely discovered in the Emerald Forest, when a grimm dies its body will disappear into smoke, making research very difficult. However, there are a few that do not do so, one being the Amaterasu dragon. Next lesson we will be making a trip out to the forest to take a look at the dragon, and to check its anatomy. As for this lesson, we will be taking a look at the biology of the grimm each lesson, and I will be teaching you the best ways to deal with them."

The first lesson they had done were Boarbatusks and Beowolves. Nicely alliterative, and Boars were difficult to deal with as it was, so learning how to deal with them was helpful. As for the next part of the day, they had their assembly. They all received personal lockers to put their weapons that could be launched anywhere outside of the school. At least Rusty and Garnet had somewhere to put their rather unwieldy weapons now. Their next lesson was also Glynda, and this one they shared with JNPR.

It was a fighting lesson, and people would be taking turns fighting, and being taught about aura and tournament rules. Apparently a tournament was coming. For the first half of the lesson they learnt about Aura, how it works, what it does, and how gauge it. Everybody who had remembered to bring their weapon had an aura gauge installed on their weapon.

The first matchup of the lesson was Garnet against Nora. The two boisterous girls took their positions on the stage, which could change to different locales, springing up small hills and rocks. Apparently they would be fighting on a hilly desert area.

Nora opened immediately by jumping backwards and firing two shots from Magnhild, which thudded into Lancelot, not even touching Garnet. Garnet stood in position, waiting for Nora to come to her. Which she did. Nora switched her weapon to hammer mode, and fired herself both literally and figuratively towards Garnet.

Garnet shifted Lancelot downwards slightly, deflecting Nora's attack towards the ground before bringing her weapon down on Nora, taking a chunk of Nora's aura with it. She immediately got back up and fired downwards, propelling herself backwards and sending Garnet up into the air, taking an amount of her aura. A small amount.

As Garnet hit the ground, Nora rained grenade shots on top of her, carpeting the area in pink explosions. Garnet ignored the attacks, standing in front of them, each hit steadily taking her aura, although very slowly. She ran forward, weapon ahead of her to block Nora's grenades. As soon as she closed, Garnet sent Nora barreling along the ground with a single swing of her weapon, stopping at a rock jutting out of the ground. The moment Nora got to her feet, a stream of minigun fire knocked her back down. Glynda called the match as Nora reached red aura, giving the fight to Garnet.

The next fight was between Lapis and Ren. Two stoic fighters, both using two small guns, one fast firing and low stopping power, the other opposite. The area shifted to a lush forest not unlike the Emerald forest from before, and both prepared to fight.

Lapis and Ren both disappeared into the tree canopy as soon as the round started. The moment Lapis saw movement on the forest floor, she fired into the ground ahead of it and jumped down, kick ready. Ren saw her coming and jumped back, before moving forward as she made contact with the ground, hitting her with the barrels of his weapons and firing, taking down her aura.

Lapis moved into the cover of the trees again, taking a look at Ren with her semblance. His right wrist was slightly weaker than his left, so if she could disarm that weapon she likely could take him down. She came out of the canopy again, straight towards Ren. He spun in place and stretched his arm out, slashing Lapis with the blades under his guns, sending Lapis into the ground. As Ren moved to finish her off, she leapt up and fired a shot at Ren's wrist, sending one of his guns flying out of his hand. She did the same to the other.

As soon as he lost his funs, Ren charged his hands with his aura and snapped forward, sending Lapis reeling along the ground. Glynda stopped the match, calling up Azure and Pyrrha.

The arena changed to a typical arena, probably like what would be used in the tournament, and in the real training area. Azure drew her sword and Pyrrha drew hers.

The round began and Azure and Pyrrha's eyes began to glow in unison. Pyrrha made her first move of sprinting to Azure and she started slow, with a swing of her sword and extending it to reach Azure. But she dodged both attacks, flying harmlessly past her as Azure move in, swinging her sword at Pyrrha, hoping to finish the fight quickly.

Pyrrha brought her shield up, but Azure saw it coming and feinted her sword down, hitting Pyrrha in the legs and knocking her to her feet. She recovered immediately, bringing her spear around in a tornado to attempt to hit Azure, but she dodged again and sent Pyrrha rolling with a strong kick. They both switched their weapons to the gun modes, and Azure sent two explosive shots into the ground, kicking up a large amount of dust. Pyrrha couldn't see, but Azure could. She sent a railgun round at her, sending her along the ground again, and moved to the right, firing as she went.

Pyrrha brought up her shield to deflect the bullets, and fired shots of her own back at the source, but Azure was already gone. She leapt over the red haired girls head and came down with a strong slash, sending Pyrrha into the red and ending the match.

After Jaune's battle with Cardin, the lesson ended and they went to the cafeteria for their lunch. RGLA sat at a table just down from the second years, some of who were interested in the Amaterasu dragon. Apparently they are a rare type of grimm, rarely seen outside of their dens. If it was protecting a den, it was a good thing its brood didn't wake. An amount of noise could be heard down the table, some cruel laughing and yelping. When Rusty looked down the table, he could see Cardin pulling on a rabbit faunus' ears, and the rest of CRDL stood around him, making fun of her and calling her a freak.

Rusty's hand clenched into a fist and shook before he stretched it out and calmed down. He couldn't stand it when humans treated Faunus as below them, but he decided to finish his lunch and the day. Picking fights in Signal got him into enough trouble, doing it in Beacon wouldn't help.


	5. Chapter 5

Team RGLA

Not entirely sure where I'm going to go with this chapter. Oh well, lets see where we end up.

"One of the other professors in extremely ill, so I will not be here to take you to the Amaterasu. Instead, Professor Port will be taking you while I take Team's RWBY, JNPR and CRDL to the Crimson forest. Behave, or you will have me punishing you when I and you return." The class seemed split on Glynda's absence, half happy and half disappointed. Rusty personally was pleased, as well was Garnet and Azure. Lapis seemed indifferent as usual.

Port spoke up. "Yes, haha. You youngsters will be coming with me to the Emerald forest. I'm sure we will have a grand time, researching such a great beast, and I'm sure you will be happy to hear some of my stories of being a Hunter." Again, the class was split. There were those at the school, such as Nora who enjoyed the boisterous professor's tales, while others like Lapis or Weiss couldn't stand them, preferring to get along with the lesson.

The teams were split into two groups. Port led one group, who moved along more slowly, while two teams under the supervision of Team CFVY scouted ahead, although those particular second years seemed barely suited to such a thing. The two teams with CFVY were AGLA, and ALVA, while the teams with Port were RGLA, YUNO and GHUL. The main group could easily hear the short bursts of fighting ahead of them, ended quickly by CFVY, although being with Port afforded them no such luxury.

The sounds of fighting ahead drew more grimm to the area, even further back towards the main group, who were now surrounded on all sides by Beowolves, Ursae and Boarbatusks. RGLA, YUNO and GHUL took up positions around Port, preparing to fend off the waves of Grimm coming towards them. The first lot came towards them, a large group of Beowolves. Rusty ducked the first swipe and fired his sword out into the Beowolf, knocking it down and preparing to hit the next one, but Garnet pushed him out of the way. Her lance shifted to its other form and fired a hail of bullets at the Grimm, knocking them back and killing some. The others all shifted their weapons to ranged modes and fired on their group, explosions certainly aplenty because of their weapons properties.

GHUL and YUNO however dived into their groups of grimm, since only 2 out of the 8 people had any form of ranged attack. GHUL used their strange semblances to create extra limbs to fight, while the members of YUNO used a Knife, Axe, Katana and Rifle, respectively. Limbs rained in a bloody downfall, the two groups being the most vicious of the year.

The second wave came to them, the Ursae. RGLA was out of ammo, and shifted their weapons to the melee forms. Garnet took the lead, blocking two enemies with her lance, while Lapis and Azure leapt over them, beheading both, Rusty covering their rear, chopping up two Ursae of his own. Azure and Lapis jumped as Garnet swung her weapon again, bisecting multiple Ursae who were in the middle of attacking. Rusty put the Amaterasu rod into his sword and jumped onto the Lance as Garnet swung again, sending him forward. He flew in a spiral, either cutting up grimm or sending out waves of fire to hit ones that were too far.

GHUL and YUNO seemed to be doing far as they were going, although YUNO's light attacks had a little trouble felling some of the enemies, although they still managed to finish up well. GHUL by comparison were dominating, sending Ursae flying, or their limbs, although they would no doubt run out of aura soon. The third wave of grimm came towards them, the armoured hides of the Boarbatusk rolling towards them. Rusty switched out his dust again, this time to ice. Just before the enemies hit, he embedded his sword into the ground and created a large wall of ice, sending the boarbatusks onto their backs. Before they could turn over, Garnet punched the ice, sending large shards out and killing the enemies. This was repeated every time until they were all defeated.

YUNO, however, were not doing well. They had no ways to flip the enemies, and their attacks couldn't pierce their armour. GHUL were still occupied by their group. Before RGLA could get to them, the boarbatusks, and the trees in the area, were obliterated. While Rusty had initially thought CFVY had come to help, standing in the center of the fighting was Professor Port, weapon in hand, and incinerated grimm all around. He pulled the leader of the team up off the ground, along with the others. A word wasn't said between Port and the team until they reached the corpse of the Amaterasu. Port had said on the way to the clearing, after the fight, that corpses of powerful types of grimm did not decay like weaker grimm.

By the time they had reached the area, CFVY's group had already set up the camp. They would be spending a few nights here, studying the corpse and training against the wild grimm. Thankfully there was a lake to bathe nearby, so they wouldn't be dirty the whole time. Azure would certainly take advantage of that to have another talk with him.

The first day they did little, Port having decided that the ambush from earlier was more than enough training for the day. Next, he laid out the rules. Teams would be alternating nights on watch. First CFVY, then AGLA, YUNO, ALVA, GHUL and finally RGLA. In the evening before they slept, each team would have up to an hour in the lake to wash. Finally, during the day, two teams would patrol the area. This would be a lesson in surviving in the wild too, so one of the teams would go further out and gather things such as food, although thy had brought an amount with them, carried on Yatsuhashi's back. In fact, each member of CFVY had a bag with equipment. Yatsuhashi had the food, Coco the ammo, Velvet the dust, and Fox miscellaneous equipment such as tablets to purify water.

The first two teams on patrol were CFVY and ALVA. RGLA would be studying the Amaterasu with Port. GHUL, YUNO and AGLA would be relaxing and sparring with eachother. Rusty made his way to the dragon with his team and Port. "Now, as you can see, the body has not decomposed like other grimm, for example the ones you thought earlier. It is unknown why they do this, although I have seen it plenty in my time of course, haha." Apparently when Rusty had killed it, his sword had hit the organ that gave it its ability to breath fire. "This was just a baby, I'm sure you will be surprised to find, as you can see from the tiny armour plates. Adults are one of the few grimm able to use something like a semblance. They cover themselves in a black plate armour. Very evil and grimm indeed, haha! Did you like the pun?"

The lesson continued for some time, and the teacher being Port, he managed to make it interesting. Other hunters like Rusty had done something similar, hitting a specific organ, which gave them a strange infusion into their weapons. Some had even managed to make them more powerful by killing other grimm, or hitting the special organs of other grimm like them. Port told them that the most powerful 'evolution' of the power from the Amaterasu was to create a suit of armour like them, covering them head to toe in thick black-gold armour that boosted their abilities. Azure seemed slightly excited over it, for some reason. Maybe he would find out later.

After the lesson, which has gone on surprisingly long, CFVY and ALVA returned with food, and the other teams were exhausted from their sparring with eachother, although GHUL seemed fine. They were one of the most powerful teams in the year. All of them except one was a guy, opposite to RGLA. They used an odd way of fighting, instead of using weapons they used their semblances to create tails, wings and swords from their body. It did drain aura quickly though, so GHUL spent all of their time fighting, building up their abilities to drain aura much more slowly.

RGLA made their way to the lake, having the first bathe, them being the whole reason they were there. Just before they reached it, Lapis stopped them. "I'll go first." And with that, she sprinted off to the lake ahead of the others.

When Rusty, Garner and Azure reached the lake, Lapis was already submerged up to her ears in the warm water. Natural springs and lakes in Remnant were normally warm, thankfully, so they didn't have to dip into icy water. It almost seemed like Lapis sunk lower when the others arrived, her clothes piled up nearby. Was she embarrassed about being seen naked? Either way, the others stripped off their clothes and went into the lake themselves. Garnet was the last to be finished, but she entered the deep, warm water with a loud splash. She was a boisterous one, perhaps even more so than Nora or Yang. Well, maybe not Nora.

Rusty leant back against the rocky walls of the lake, letting out a deep sigh. This was the first time he had ever been legitimately relaxed since he had been at Beacon. The same stood for Azure. They were both good at hiding it though, nobody but their team would know otherwise. The whole team was finally relaxed. Except Lapis. Speaking of which...

Azure swam over to Lapis. "What's the matter, Lapis? Are you a little embarrassed? Do you not want Rusty to see you naked, or are your concerns about us?" Azure gave Lapis a flirty smile, gesturing to Garnet as Lapis sunk even lower into the water.

Lapis stammered before rising above the water momentarily to answer. "O-of course not! Why would I care if Rusty saw me? I just uh...I like the warm water." Lapis eyes shifted from left to right as she searched for an answer to Azure. "Oh you don't care, eh? So it wouldn't bother you if I lifted you out of the water to show off to Rusty?" Before Rusty could react to the statement, or tell her to stop, Azure put her hands on Lapis small hips and lifted her from the water, steam rising off her body.

Lapis squealed as she was lifted into the air, beating on Azure's strong arms to put her down. Water dripped from both of their exposed bodies as Garnet rolled in the water from laughter, and Rusty's face burned a bright red at the sight of Azure and Lapis. Azure, again, didn't seem to care at all that her chest was being shown off to her team, though Rusty did not mind. He had enjoyed the feeling of them on his back. He still snapped a look at Lapis' bare body in the air, although only quickly for fear of his life.

Azure dropped Lapis into the water, landing with a large splash into the water, surprising for her light body. As soon as she gained her footing again, she covered her chest with her arms, before looking to Rusty, who had already turned his head away and closed his eyes. Lapis turned her head up, letting out a small 'hmph!' as she made her way back to her side of the lake, and disappeared into the water like an alligator. Garnet was still splashing in the water for a moment, laughing, before letting out a sharp breath. Rusty couldn't tell if it was water or tears of laughter rolling down her face.

After another moment of relaxation and glaring from Lapis, the four started to actually bathe. Fox had already left everything they needed. Rusty was the first to finish bathing, although whether that id a good or bad thing depends on how you see it.

Having seen Rusty finish, and apparently waiting for the moment, Azure called out to him. "Rustyyyy, can you come and help? I cant reach this spot on my back." She winked at him and stuck her tongue out. This was just like her. Letting another sigh slip through, Rusty swam over to Azure, who handed him the sponge and soap with a smile. He grabbed the sponge in his hand and put the soap on it, before rubbing it over the small of Azure's back. Yeah right, she couldn't reach it.

A soft moan came from Azure's lips. Apparently she enjoyed having Rusty wash her. Having cleaned that part of her properly, he tried to hand the sponge back to her, but she batted it away. "I can't be bothered to stand up, do you think you could do some other places for me?" She winked at him again. "I know exactly what you're talking about, and not with Lapis and Garnet around. Do it yourself!" His face flushed a bright red as he put the sponge on her lap for her.

Rusty should have known it wouldn't stop there. "Rustyyyyyyy! Do my back, I can't reach and I don't trust Azure not to lift me into the air again." Lapis shouted at Rusty, certainly less polite or flirty than Azure, although the motive seemed the same. He swum to Lapjs next and did her back. Lapis face was clearly red, although whether it was because she was naked and less than a foot from Rusty or because she enjoyed Rusty's cleaning ability as much as Azure he was unsure of.

Azure had spent the time after Rusty had washed her off on her own, faced away from the others, doing who knows what, but Rusty had a bad feeling that he would find out. They all made their way back to the main site, having used most of their time in the lake for today.

When they arrived back, YUNO went off to the lake to relax after earlier today, and RGLA headed to their tent to sleep. They each had separate sleeping bags, thank goodness Port had brought them, although Rusty had the idea that Lapis wouldn't be too pleased with having to change in front of the others.

Azure and Rusty woke before the others again, thankfully, because Azure couldn't keep away from him. She shuffled over to him as she woke, and leant on his shoulder, putting her arms around his. Rusty looked down to her and she looked back up to him with her huge, blue eyes. He couldn't stop staring at her for a few minutes, before he realised what he was doing and looked away with a sheepish look on his face.

Azure giggled at his reaction and hugged his arm tighter. She seemed in a much different mood today, less flirty and more love-struck. Although that would likely change. They were both still in their nightclothes, though if Rusty's t-shirt and underwear could be called that was up for debate. By the time Garnet and Lapis had woken, Azure had already made her way into Rusty's sleeping bag despite his protests, still wrapped around his arm.

Lapis was not happy to see the sight, more so out of jealousy than out of not liking two people sharing a sleeping bag. She too made her way to Rusty, leaning against his leg and looking up to him with the cutest eyes she could muster, rubbing her head against his leg. Rusty's hand instinctively went out to stroke her hair like he would a cat doing the same thing. As his hand touched her head, Azurs glared at Lapis, who returned a smug smile. Azure unwrapped one of her arms from Rusty's and flicked Lapis on the head, sending her off of Rusty, rubbing her head.

Rusty looked to Garnet who was stifling a laugh over the antics of Lapis and Azure. His eyes said help me, but in his heart he loved the attention, especially from two girls like this. Garnet suddenly had an idea, though whether it was good is also up for debate. "Let's play truth or dare!" It was still early in the morning so they had a lot of time. Azure got off of Rusty and out of his sleeping bag, Rusty doing the same, and the four sat in a circle.

The first victim was Azure. "Truth, from Garnet." "That's so boring, but fine. Have you ever kissed a guy other than Rusty?" A grin spread on her lips on the last few words. Apparently she was awake earlier than they thought. Azure stuttered for a moment, before answering. "No, I haven't. I'm just really good, aren't I?" Rusty turned his head away, blushing again. He got the feeling that his face would be spending more time red than white in this team. "Now, let's go again."

The next person to be asked the question was Garnet. "Truth or dare, Garnet? And from who?" "Truth, from Rusty." Rusty sighed. He hated being asked to make the questions or dares for these. "Ok, fine. Why aren't you into me, like these two are? Not got a thing for guys?" Garnet chuckled, as she had been waiting for that question. "Yeah, actually, I'm into girls. I guess we both enjoyed the show at the lake." Garnet laughed again. "Well, Azure and Lapis had better watch out then."

By the time that the game had finished, and RGLA had gotten dressed and prepared for the day, the other teams had done so too. Time for another day, Rusty thought, as he stepped outside with his team. Today they would be on patrol with YUNO. CFVY made their way over to the Amaterasu with Port. Apparently they had never seen one, which was a surprise. Rusty had thought that by the second year they would have studied every kind of grimm.

"How do you guys want to do this, then? Two teams of 4 made from 2 of each team?" The leader of YUNO, Yuno funnily enough, asked on what to do on patrol. Maybe they were shaken from almost dying. "How about we go Yuno, Lapis, Garnet, Uryu, then Me, Azure, Nix, Orr? It'd be a good setup." Lapis piped up and turned to Rusty and Azure. "I am NOT leaving you two with eachother. Not a cha-HEY!" Garnet grabbed Lapis and threw her over her shoulder, before running off with Yuno and Uryu. They didn't seem to have much of a choice. Rusty turned to Azure, letting another sigh slip from his mouth, before gesturing to the two members of YUNO. Time to get going.


	6. Chapter 6

Team RGLA

Well considering what happened in the last arc, I've figured out that the time they spend in the forest will run over the whole of Jaunedice and actually PAST the finish of volume 1. Then we'll start with the whole volume 2 part.

Rusty and Azure moved along the ground, dodging trees and roots sticking from the earth below them. A small pack of beowolves, maybe 20, were following behind them and they didn't want to take risks. The skidded to a stop and switched their weapons to their ranged modes, standing in the center of a small clearing. Just as the beowolves entered the clearing, Nix and Orr leapt from the trees, tearing a line through the back of the pack. Rusty and Azure opened fire on the front of the pack, obliterating the group in seconds. This was good practice.

They had already picked up a good amount of food, enough to last the camp the night at least, and fighting with the members of team YUNO was good practice in teamwork. Orr's axe cleaved through a beowolf that had leapt towards Rusty's back, and Rusty took care of one behind Azure. The two were a good team, and fought together flawlessly, covering eachothers weaknesses and keeping an eye on eachother in battle. As the last beowolf fell to the ground, the group sheathed their weapons.

"Well, we've got enough food and we've cleared the immediate area of any grimm. Do you three want to head back now?" Rusty turned to the three around him. "Actually, didn't Glynda or Port say that Amaterasu dragons normally stay around their nests? I wouldn't mind seeing if we could find it and come back with the others to clear it out." Azure piped up, putting a fairly good idea on the table. It would be helpful to find the nest and rid the area of the powerful grimm. Although if that Amaterasu they thought earlier was just a young one..."Do you really think we could take the nest? I mean, I heard Port say that the one you guys fought was just a baby. Imagine what the mother or father would be like." Nix also raised a good point, Rusty doubted that even with CFVY and Port that they could take the nest.

"Here's what we do. We find the nest, tell Port where it is, then when we get back to the academy, I'm sure Glynda will set up an extermination mission with some teachers and teams." Azure could be surprisingly reasonable in a serious situation, despite appearing so ditzy any other time. It was a good thing for Rusty's apparent main partner to be more reasonable than him. "Lets get moving then. I'd like to find it before dark." Rusty, Azure, Orr and Nix headed off. Thankfully, there were apparent tracks that they could follow. It was too bad that Lapis wasn't here, she could find it easily.

By the time they found the nest, it was already dark and they were tired, having been ambushed by the nocturnal grimm. It was a good thing the Amaterasu dragons weren't nocturnal, because the nest was actually a mountain, seemingly hollowed by all of the holes along the cliff face. They could swarm them like ants on any attacker, it was no surprise that they hadn't been exterminated yet if all their nests were like this.

They headed back, reaching the camp much faster thanks to actually knowing it's location. Nix and Orr decided to scout ahead, having taken less of a beating than Rusty and Azure. It also let them have some time to themselves, to talk about things. Almost instinctively once the pair from YUNO were gone, their hands reached for eachother.

"Surprisingly nice night for all of the danger in this place, eh?" Rusty spoke up after a few moments of silence. It was, as he said, surprisingly nice. The stars in the night sky could be seen through the tree canopy, white against the black backdrop, and the moon was clearly visible. Azure pulled herself closer to his arm, wrapping herself around it and walking alongside him. Though whether pulling herself closer was out of fear from having lost so much aura, being tired, adoration, or any combination of the above was unknown to Rusty. He half-hoped it was adoration.

"Yeah, it is. Good for a walk. Romantic, too..." Azure's voice trailed off on the end of each sentence, making it clear that she was tired of the walking and fighting. She just wanted to sleep, like usual. Rusty stopped as she slipped against his arm, almost falling asleep then and there. He hoisted her onto his back, arms around his neck and head on his shoulder. He hoped they wouldn't be attacked. Just before she fell asleep, she planted a kiss on his cheek.

Garnet, Lapis, Yuno and Uryu had already made it back long before them, although they hadn't been searching for grimm nests or carrying tired girls. Nix and Orr had made it back too, having taken the food with them. Apparently making campfires was something at least one person knew how to do, as they were all sat around it, eating the food that CFVY had brought back the night before. Rusty took Azure back to the tent first, taking her armour and clothes, and replacing them with her night gown. She was surprisingly easy to dress while she was asleep, although that could have been because of how small and light she was.

Rusty exited the tent, having placed Azure into her sleeping bag, and sat down with the rest of RGLA, who had apparently managed to bond somewhat with team YUNO. Garnet seemed to be a fan of Yuno and Uryu's hair colours. Rusty was sure Azure would like Uryu's, the colour being purple, and Lapis was, rather surprisingly, sharing food with Nix and Orr, although she showed Rusty a very apparent glare. She must have thought Rusty and Azure had got up to something in the forest.

Rusty sat on a log in front of the large campfire, weapons all stuck in the ground around it and meat cooking on sticks over the fire. He was practically interviewed as soon as the others noticed it. "Is something wrong with Azure?" "Did you two do anything in the forest?" "Why were you two back so late?" Rusty answered every question thrown at him, almost as lethargic and tired as Azure was before she fell asleep. He could barely eat, in fact, his aura drained as it was. The night would still go on for a good while yet, and Rusty was determined not to miss a part of it, even if it was a possibility he would fall asleep on the log. By the time the campfire had finished it was midnight, and RGL returned to the tent quickly. Rusty especially wanted to sleep, leaning on Garnet's shoulder as they entered the dark of the tent.

Rusty woke once in the night. Nothing woke him, but he did so anyway. Azure seemed to have instinctively grabbed him, as when he woke up, her arms were wrapped around him and she was still asleep. He returned quickly, happy to have her so close to him.

Rusty and Azure slept long, not waking until after mid-day. They both woke almost at the same time, and got dressed quickly, armour included. Just as they had finished, Garnet poked her head in the tent. "Hey guys, good to see you're awake. Glynda just finished her lesson, so she's going to be helping out!" The camp seemed surprisingly lively, and it didn't sound like anyone was out on patrol from the number of voices. Rusty and Azure slipped out of the tent with Garnet, and they were right. All of the teams were there, as well as another second year team. Did Glynda bring more teams? Were they out on patrol? The deep-sleeping pair waited for Glynda to finish talking to Port, his booming voice could be heard anywhere across the camp, in great contrast to Glynda's fairly calm but stern voice.

As soon as she finished talking, RGLA pulled her away. "I'm sure you know that Amaterasu dragons are never on their own, and have a nest. We found it. But obviously those of us that are here can't deal with it. We wanted you or Ozpin to make an extermination mission." Rusty didn't spare any time in telling her the situation. "Well, I must say I appreciate your initiative, and I see that Port has taught you well. Did you record the location on your scroll? It would certainly help." Glynda pushed up her glasses, seemingly interested in the situation. That was a first. "Yes, I did. Here." Rusty pulled out his scroll and unlocked it, before opening the co-ordinates and handing it to Glynda.

"Which of you was it who found the area? This certainly deserves a reward." Rusty knew that it was just him, Azure, Nix and Orr, but he was a good liar. He didn't want to leave his team out, but he couldn't leave YUNO out either. "It was RGLA and YUNO who found it. We were the ones on patrol yesterday, and Azure mentioned wanting to check it out before we headed back. Who would be going on the mission?" Glynda tapped a few times on her scroll, seemingly listing the names of YUNO and RGLA. "We'll see about your reward when we get back, same for YUNO. We will likely be sending a large group of teachers, as well as some second years, and some of the stronger first years such as you, GHUL and RWBY. Anyway, I should get back to Ozpin about this. Here is your scroll." Glynda handed Rusty back his scroll, and strutted off to a uninhabited part of the clearing to call Ozpin about the situation.

Port called out to RGLA from across the clearing, near the Amaterasu corpse. The team trotted over to him, stopping a few feet away. "Ah good, you are here! I'm sure you youngsters will be happy to know that, in this glorious specimen of a beast, we have found a second fire organ! Since you killed it, I wanted to let you decide amongst yourselves who would have the honour of using it. Of course, Rusty could also use it, though I'm unsure what kind of power he would gain from it, or how powerful the boost would be. It is up to you to decide however, brave RGLA! This will indeed be a story to tell your children in the future, ahaha!" Rusty and Azure both jumped at the last words, rather surprised. Did he know? "Oh look at you two lovebirds. He's not talking about you, you dolts." Garnet leaned forward, looking past Azure, a dumb grin spread across her face. Rusty rubbed his forehead. He was surprised he hadn't got a headache at some point over the week. "Well, its down to you. Im not gonna just say I get it. Decide within yourselves." Rusty turned to his team as he spoke. The three walked away for a moment and spoke for a good five minutes before returning.

"We've decided you should have it. It might make you stronger, and you'll need it!" Garnet stuck her tongue out at the last part, clearly enjoying the joking around. Rusty didn't even bother replying to that with more than an exasperated sigh as he unsheathed his weapon and walked over to Port. The teacher gestured to the organ within the creature. He switched to the black dust rod, enveloping the sword in its black fire, before stabbing the blade into the second source of the Amaterasu's power. A river of thick black blood washed over the sword, boosting the size and heat of the flames. As he removed the sword from the organ, it shined a bright light before disappearing into a black shine, and enveloping Rusty in the same.

The corpse of the Amaterasu moved! It appeared behind Rusty, roaring a loud scream that made the others bend to their knees in pain. Chains seemed to fly from Rusty's body, binding the creature in place before making it buckle forward and shrink down to the same size as Rusty, the black shine still covering his body. The same shine began to appear around the creature as it roared and screamed in agony, the chains pulling it closer to Rusty, beginning to make it disappear into the same black light as the sword. A dark wind began to build up around Rusty, sending the others skidding back as the started to stand up now that the screaming had stopped.

A bright, hot explosion enveloped the immediate area around Rusty, sending the others reeling backwards, and even the teams in the forest on patrol could feel the rush of wind and hot air. As the light cleared and everybody regained their vision, they could make out a large black scorch mark on the ground where Rusty had been, and indeed where Rusty was, a black figure kneeled on the floor.

Instead of Rusty, there was now a man of similar size covered in sleek, black and purple armour. The helmet was shaped the same as a large V, the mouth grill separated from the large crest by a visor that was the same colour that was a blood red, the same colour as the eyes of a grimm. The pauldrons were shaped similarly to horizontal S's, the 'top' of the S going behind Rusty's head and the bottom gripping the front of his shoulders. The chest plate was simple, black plate, emblazoned with Rusty's insignia. The gauntlets were shaped like large rectangular boxes, extending past his elbows, with small plate covering part of his upper arms. The legs were simple like the chest plate, simple black armour with pointed boots. Under the armour was a dark purple skintight suit.

The figure seemed to be in fact Rusty. Was this the armour that Port had mentioned? To Rusty it didn't seem a ton more powerful than how he was normally, but there was still a noticeable increase in his abilities. 'Wielding' this armour seemed almost natural to him, and he almost immediately just...knew how to use it. It was like the information was fed directly to his brain. He could also feel his aura draining quickly. The armour may make him stronger, but it certainly didn't come without a price it seemed.

Rusty looked around. Almost everybody was standing up after being knocked down by the wind and explosion, or struggling to stand up. That transformation was powerful. Would it be like that every time? It would hardly be a help if it was. Glynda had already made her way to him, apparently not caring for her own safety. She brazenly knocked on the armour, which returned a hollow ringing to her ears. At least that was normal. "Do you know how to use this armour? Or does it feel new to you?" She questioned him on it almost immediately. Just like Glynda.

"Yeah, it feels natural. Like I've worn it before." He looked at his hand as he stretched it and turned it, the armour a perfect fit for his body. Before Glynda could ask any questions, Azure had already sprinted up to him. She couldn't seem to decide whether she was excited or worried about him. "Are you ok? That looked like it hurt, with the chains and the Amaterasu. It kinda reminds me of..." She trailed off at the end like she was thinking of something. "Oh I'll show you later. Anyway, you should practice with it! Get used to whatever abilities it has." Rusty liked her idea, but that would have to wait. His aura was getting low. He clenched his fist to remove the armour. It was briefly enveloped in black flames before disappearing, making his sword re-appear. And giving him a new rod of dust. Looked like that was how he was meant to activate the armour then.

The others were all still stunned at the sudden transformation. They were certainly not expecting something of this magnitude today. Glynda decided to speak up again. "Are there any limitations on the armour? Locks in place perhaps? Was it as powerful as the legends say?" Rusty couldn't help but feel exasperated at the sudden interview that he has taken part in, although something like what he did was certain to attract it. "It drained my aura very quickly, and it certainly didn't seem quite as powerful." It was puzzling. This was supposed to be some legendary armour, yet it was scarcely more powerful than he was, so was he supposed to power it up? Kill more Amaterasu? He would likely find out in future, anyway. For now, it was best to just train with it, he thought.

"Well for now, I think everybody should rest. My aura feels drained just from being around that, and I'm sure the rest of you feel similarly, if your aura isn't entirely gone at all. The lake you have been bathing at has strange properties, one of which being the ability to regenerate aura. I think it best if you go down there, in your teams of course." Glynda clapped her hands and pointed to GHUL, signalling them as the first to go. Today had been eventful, Rusty thought.

By the time it had reached RGLA's turn in the lake, their aura had mostly regenerated, but Glynda sent them down anyway. They needed the rest, she thought, and it didn't take RGLA long to reach the lake or strip, although Lapis followed her routine of running ahead of the others. Rusty sat in the lake, the warm water reaching to his chest and steam rising from his body. Lapis sat over on a side away from the others, face half covered with water, as usual. It was a bit of a surprise that Azure hasn't tried flirting yet, although Garnet was taking the opportunity to eye her up, and she certainly liked what she saw at least.

Although nothing had happened to cause it, they could all feel some tension in the air. Was it because of the armour? Azure felt slightly jealous, but Garnet and Lapis couldn't care less. For Lapis, it was Azure's growing closeness to their leader, but that wasn't enough to cause this amount of it between them all. They could all feel it, and none of them could place its origin. Rusty could at least attempt to calm the air.

"Why did you all become huntresses?" Rusty spoke it to them without even raising his head from its apparent sleeping position. It was a pointed, armour-piercing question, but a good one nonetheless. Garnet was the first to speak up. "I like helping people. I'm a simple girl, and making others feel better makes me feel good in turn, and I like that feeling. I'm just here to give others a better life and kill grimm." She chuckled lightly at the last part. It clearly wasn't meant as a joke, but she laughed anyway. Lapis answered next. "My parents were killed by the White Fang, and I was taken in as an orphan at Signal. I needed to turn my anger somewhere, and becoming a huntress would be the best chance to fight them and let it all out against the grimm while helping people. Even if it wasn't by choice, I probably would have become a huntress anyway." Lapis shuffled about uncomfortably, what she had just said clearly wasn't an easy thing to admit. The others could do nothing but dip their heads lower, in respect and sadness. "What about you, Rusty?" His head jerked up after the silence of several minutes, the question asked by Garnet. "I don't know. I've never wanted to be a nobody, and being a hunter is a good choice to be remembered as a hero. It's what I've always wanted, to not be forgotten." Rusty's answer was probably the most self serving of them all, not doing it to help others, just for others to know who he was. He hated himself for it, but it was his reason and he wouldn't lie about it. The rest of his team couldn't think of anything to say in reply. Azure never gave her reason.

By the time they had returned to the camp, everybody else was in their tents, but none slept, the thick sheet of tension still hung over the area, like something was waiting, and none could sleep. Everybody was waiting. This wasn't something caused by any arguments or feelings, this was just a chilling feeling of absolute, unrelenting malevolence, permeating every part of every body and creating a rising tenseness over everybody. Absolute silence filled the clearing, not even the sounds of owls, insects or rodents could be heard. Nothing moved.

The silence was broken by the solitary screaming of a girl, deep within the forest, piercing the ears of everybody in the camp. They all swiftly moved their heads up, jerking them towards the direction of the sound. A few hushed whispers sounded between the tents before another scream was heard, one close and one far.

The first came from a tent, not two down from RGLA. It was short, and was finished by a soft sobbing and muttering. It sounded like one of the members of YUNO. The second was deep in the forest, from the opposite direction of the first scream, and this time it was male. What was happening?!

Others rushed out of their tents to YUNO's tent, grabbing Yuno and pulling her out. Of course it was the leader. She muttered over and over, a mad mantra that unsettled everyone. "The grimm are coming the grimm are coming the grimm are coming." Everybody around, teachers and second years included, grabbed their weapons and readied themselves, the second years, Glynda and Port taking point around the other students. More screams sounded simultaneously from within the forest, but none seemed to come from the same point, and some students seemed to be looking in different directions from others, or shaking their heads. By now, seven screams in total had sounded out. Were they from the second year teams in the forest? How could they stand against anything that had killed second years so easily?

A line in the trees broke, and a second year, bloody and face etched with terror, sprinted from the break. His armour was ripped, and he seemed unable to move his face in any way. ALVA moved up to him, on his hands and knees to try and help him. Blood dripped from his body and tears streamed down his face, but no sound could be heard from him, not even breathing.

Upon closer examination, his throat was cut in a thick, jagged line, though no blood dripped from it, as if he had already been drained and kept alive through fear and adrenaline. He turned over onto his back, hand pointing to the trees where he had came from.

Said trees were pushed apart, large black paws crushing the bark, powerful especially for the size, not much larger than an alpha beowolf, and sharing the build. Except this one had no plates, just pure black smooth fur. Within one of its hands it held the mangled body of another second year, limbs bent into positions they shouldn't and flesh rended through, clothes ripped to the point they were barely there and blood now only seeping from her mangled corpse. Now it was clear why the one who had just barely survived was crying for his life. The morale of some of the students broke, their bodies shaking in terror, but thankfully they all held their ground, standing by their training and idealism of the legendary hunters and huntresses.

More grimm emerged from the forest behind it and all around, surrounding the clearing where the camp was, changing the brown and green of the trees to the red and black of the grimm, but not white. None of these grimm had any armour at all, beowolves, ursa, nevermore. The only ones who did were the boarbatusk and the deathstalkers. Why did these not have armour? Were they in enough fights to the point they had lost it? Were these grimm from before they had even developed armour? If they had survived that long, fighting them was a terrifying thought, but nobody would run.

The leader of the pack howled, raising its head into the air and letting out a murderous roar. The ancient pack surged forward, climbing over eachother to get a meal, not caring for the health of their partners. The students and teachers prepared for the fight, ready to either kill or die to these grimm of ancient times.


End file.
